Wines

92 Points! Elegant nose with loads of dark fruit, licorice and crushed chalk. Full-bodied and wonderfully textured on the palate with well-dosed fine tannins and attractive red fruit. Enjoyable long finish. Try in 2015. - James Suckling

92 Points! The 2019 Cap de Faugères has tightened up a lot on the nose, showing dense black fruit, tar and graphite scents, quite Left Bank in style. The palate is much more expressive, featuring fleshy red berry fruit mixed with allspice, clove and white pepper. Persistent and quite convincing on the finish. Give it time for those aromatics to get their mojo back – which they will. - Neal Martin, Vinous Media

91 Points! The 2019 Cap de Faugeres is terrific, just as it was from bottle. Rich and expansive, the 2019 is so expressive right out of the gate. Succulent red cherry, spice, leather and tobacco all kicked up in this attractive entry-level offering from Silvio Denz. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

94 Points! The 2019 Château Carbonnieux sports a deep purple/ruby hue to go with a brilliant nose of red and black currants, spring flowers, spicy oak, and hints of tobacco. It's beautiful on the palate as well and is medium to full-bodied, has a seamless, elegant texture, ripe tannins, and a great finish. It's the finest wine I've tasted from this estate. The blend is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot, and the balance Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, all brought up in 40% new barrels. It’s well worth tracking down some bottles and will keep for two decades. - Jeb Dunnuck

94 Points! I am so pleased that the 2019 Carbonnieux has retained the engaging aromatics that I found from the barrel sample: copious blackberry, raspberry, incense and light violet aromas soar from the glass. The palate is very well balanced with fine-grained tannins, and much more precise than recent vintages, leading to a harmonious, silky-smooth, almost tender finish. More polished than recent vintages, this Carbonnieux comes highly recommended.- Neal Martin, Vinous Media

94 Points! Lead-pencil aromas with currants and plums, too. Full body, silky tannins and a focused and very refined finish. It's the tannins that drive things. An excellent second wine of Lafite. Needs two or three years to soften. Start drinking in 2021. - JamesSuckling.com 

92 Points! The second wine of Lafite Rothschild is the 2015 Carruades De Lafite and is a beautiful wine in its own right. Based on 57% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot and the rest Cabernet Franc brought up mostly in used barrels, it has classy notes of cassis and lead pencil shavings as well as a medium to full-bodied, elegant, beautifully balanced style on the palate. It’s not a massive wine by any stretch, yet it exudes class and elegance, and is already a joy to drink. - Jeb Dunnuck

96 Points! Attractive, showing blackcurrants, lead pencil and flowers such as lavender and violets on the nose, as well as tobacco. Medium-bodied and juicy with firm and linear tannins that are rather endless. Impressive stones and chalkiness. Excellent length and crunchiness. 53% cabernet sauvignon, 40% merlot, 4% cabernet franc and 3% petit verdot. Drink in three or four years. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! Deep garnet-purple colored, notes of black cherries, juicy blackberries, and wild blueberries come bounding from the glass, chased by hints of licorice, mint tea, and lavender oil. The medium-bodied palate is so light on its feet and finely textured, delivering wonderful tension and loads of minerally sparks on the long berry-laced finish. Nice! - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, MW

94 Points! The 2022 Carruades De Lafite is beautifully balanced and has that classic Lafite elegance in its aromatics and overall mouthfeel. Sweet cassis, violets, spring flowers, and cedar notes all emerge on the nose. It's medium to full-bodied, has a balanced, elegant texture, and beautifully integrated tannins. As with the Grand Vin, it brings ample richness and depth while holding onto a beautiful sense of freshness. Drink this brilliant second wine over the coming two decades. - Jeb Dunnuck

93 Points! The 2022 Carruades de Lafite is a dense, full-throttle Pauillac. Far from an easygoing second wine, the 2022 Carruades is going to need a number of years to be at its best. It’s an almost shockingly powerful wine endowed with serious balance and tons of class. Touches of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot lend hints of spice to round out the blend. The 2022 is stellar. I may very well be underrating it today. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

93+ Points! I have been drinking this wine out of half bottle, and this was the first regular bottle I have had over recent years. While this Pomerol is loaded, it remains extremely backward - hence the lower score. I would not touch a bottle for another 5-8 years. The half bottles are tasting at least 4 to 5 points better, and are obviously much more evolved. The full bottle exhibited a dense plum/purple color along with notes of cedar, forest floor, sweet jammy plums, black currants, licorice, and tobacco leaf. Full-bodied and powerful with high tannins as well as a rustic, massive mouthfeel and finish, it should be fully mature by 2015, and keep until 2030+ - Robert Parker, robertparker.com, 2009

96 Points! Such pure and beautiful aromas of blackberries and black cherries with violets and red roses. So aromatic and enticing. Full-bodied with extremely integrated tannins that are velvety and curated. Fresh and sweet fruit at the end with an orange-peel undertone. Crushed stone and sandalwood, too. This is a very beautiful second wine of Ausone. 60% cabernet franc and 40% merlot. Drink after 2025.  - James Suckling.com

94 Points! The 2019 Chapelle d'Ausone is dense, powerful and beautifully layered in the glass. Wild red cherry, plum, exotic spice, dried flowers, mocha, rose petal and espresso are some of the many notes that give the bouquet its beguiling personality. There's real textural intensity and resonance here. As has been the case for some time, Chapelle d'Ausone is superb. If anything, it suffers from the perception of being a 'second wine.' It is that only in name. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

PLEASE BE AWARE, THIS IS A PRE-ARRIVAL WINE - YOU WILL NOT BE CHARGED SHIPPING FEES UNTIL THE WINE(S) ARRIVE

96 Points! The second wine of this brilliant château, the 2022 Chapelle D'Ausone checks in as 65% Cabernet Franc, 35% Merlot, and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon that was raised 20 months in barrels. Classic Cabernet Franc notes of black raspberries, currants, spring flowers, candied violets, and sappy mint herbs all shine here, and it's medium to full-bodied on the palate, with a pure, layered, seamless mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and a great finish. While it's not the best vintage for the second wines, you wouldn't know it by tasting this. - Jeb Dunnuck

96 Points! This is a blend of 60% Cabernet Franc, 35% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Franc. Deep garnet-purple colored, it leaps with expressive scents of red currant preserves, fresh blackberries, and violets, plus nuances of cedar chest and cinnamon stick. The medium to full-bodied palate is coated with rich black and red berry layers, supported by velvety tannins and bags of freshness, finishing long and spicy. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, MW

93 Points! The Chapelle d'Ausone is a powerful but also embryonic wine. Here, too, the wine's balance is impeccable. Super-ripe red cherry fruit, blood orange, spice, menthol and rose petal all meld together. Chapelle is a powerhouse second wine, if that term can even be used. The blend is 60% Cabernet Franc, 35% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. - Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media

94 Points! This is a big white with sliced apple, pineapple and lychee fruit. It’s full-bodied and dense with lots of fruit and phenolics on the mid-palate. A roundness and power at the end. From the same plots as Yquem. - James Suckling

94+ Points! Composed of 60% Sauvignon Blanc and 40% Sémillon, the 2022 Y d'Yquem has 6 grams per liter of residual sugar. It skips out of the glass with cheery notions of fresh, crunchy pears, allspice, fennel seed, and lime leaves, leading to touches of lemon drops, chalk dust, and white pepper. The medium-bodied palate has a satiny texture and racy backbone with layers of pear and baking spices flavors, finishing on a lingering chalky note. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, The Wine Independent

99 Points!  The 2016 Chateau D’Yquem is pure magic and dessert wines don’t get much better. Offering a pale gold color as well as a blockbuster bouquet of honeyed tangerines, tart apricots, liquid rocks, white flowers, and honeysuckle, it hits the palate with full-bodied richness, an opulent texture, vibrant acidity, and again, an incredible sense of minerality, despite having no shortage of sweetness or richness. The 2016 is a classic blend of 75% Sémillon and 25% Sauvignon that hit 14.2% alcohol with 135 grams of residual sugar. It’s already complex and approachable yet will keep for 3-4 decades. - Jeb Dunnuck

99 Points! A very classic Yquem. Breathtakingly wide spectrum of floral honey, exotic fruit (passion fruit, mango and pineapple), caramel and marzipan aromas. But none of this is a jot too much. In fact, the wine is extremely precise and finely nuanced. Wonderful freshness and textural complexity, in spite of the considerable concentration and extravagance. Very suave and sensual finish that goes on and on. - James Suckling

98 Points! Containing 135 grams per liter of residual sugar, the pale lemon-gold colored 2016 d'Yquem leaps from the glass with honeyed apricots, pineapple, green mango, crushed rocks, candied ginger, coriander seed and citrus peel with hints of orange blossom. The palate is very tightly wound, vibrant and refreshing with layer upon layer of minerals and spices, finishing with epic poise and persistence. - Lisa Perrotti-Brown, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

98 Points! Tasting the 2019, I noticed that it has a slightly paler hue compared to recent vintages (though I never read too much into the colour of young Sauternes.) For certain, it has a highly-aromatic bouquet that is beguiling in purity, enticing aromas of honeysuckle and saffron, soon joined by camomile, white flowers and orange blossom. It has wonderful delineation and gains intensity with aeration. The palate is supremely well-balanced with fine bead of acidity. Very harmonious and armed with just the right amount of viscosity, this Yquem is surprisingly understated at first but gains presence, offering irresistible flavours of layers of honey, lemongrass, lemon thyme and orange pith. Yquem is so tempting in its youth, but I feel that this vintage will repay those with the nous to cellar for at least a decade. - Neal Martin, Vinous Media

97 Points! The 2019 vintage of Château d'Yquem has the highest proportion (45%) of Sauvignon Blanc in any modern Yquem. The Sauvignon Blanc adds to the freshness, acting as a great balance to the succulent, sweet and voluptuous palate. Intense peach and apricot, combined with lemon and orange zest, make this highly appealing to drink right away - an ideal vintage with which to start Yquem’s ‘lighthouse’ project. However, it would be a shame not to give this 10+ years maturation to see how it develops. Very well, I suspect. - Decanter Magazine

ETA: EARLY WINTER OF 2026

100 Points! With 153 grams per liter of residual sugar—placing it among the 10 most concentrated vintages in the château’s history—the 2023 d'Yquem ranks among the finest wines bottled here under Lorenzo Pasquini’s direction. It unfurls from the glass with a complex, vibrant and remarkably pure bouquet of pineapple, guava, mango, confit citrus, beeswax and spices. Full-bodied, dense and concentrated, it combines formidable depth with perfectly judged control, built around a fleshy core of fruit, framed by lively acidity and a crystalline texture and culminating in an endless, refined and ethereal finish. Yquem’s natural power is here masterfully harnessed by the vintage’s freshness and tension, revealing an aesthetic of precision and vibrancy encountered only in the estate’s greatest years—made all the more remarkable by the fact that the château now achieves even higher levels of concentration than a decade ago, without any perceptible increase in sweetness on the palate. - Yohan Castaing, RobertParker.com

100 Points! Power, freshness, depth — after the extremes of 2021 and 2022, this walks the line between the two, exceptional. Mandarin, quince, mirabelle plums, white truffle, fresh fruit and confit fruit, a vibration of slate and steel, opulent but slices closed on the finish. The botrytis came early and quickly in 2023. Francis Mayeur in final vintage as consultant, after many years as inhouse winemaking team, Lorenzo Pasquini director. 154g/l residual sugar, 3.85ph, harvest September 14 to October 11. - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

100 Points! Perfect aromas carry through to every milliliter of this wine, showing intense orange peel, honey, butterscotch, saffron, smoke and peat, with hints of coffee and dried apples. Full-bodied but weightless and silky, with an excellent balance of fruit, sweetness and spices. Some peanut brittle, dried oranges and lemons at the end. I can’t get over how wonderful this is now, but it can age forever. 154 g/L residual sugar. Drink or hold. - James Suckling

ETA: EARLY WINTER OF 2026

100 Points! With 153 grams per liter of residual sugar—placing it among the 10 most concentrated vintages in the château’s history—the 2023 d'Yquem ranks among the finest wines bottled here under Lorenzo Pasquini’s direction. It unfurls from the glass with a complex, vibrant and remarkably pure bouquet of pineapple, guava, mango, confit citrus, beeswax and spices. Full-bodied, dense and concentrated, it combines formidable depth with perfectly judged control, built around a fleshy core of fruit, framed by lively acidity and a crystalline texture and culminating in an endless, refined and ethereal finish. Yquem’s natural power is here masterfully harnessed by the vintage’s freshness and tension, revealing an aesthetic of precision and vibrancy encountered only in the estate’s greatest years—made all the more remarkable by the fact that the château now achieves even higher levels of concentration than a decade ago, without any perceptible increase in sweetness on the palate. - Yohan Castaing, RobertParker.com

100 Points! Power, freshness, depth — after the extremes of 2021 and 2022, this walks the line between the two, exceptional. Mandarin, quince, mirabelle plums, white truffle, fresh fruit and confit fruit, a vibration of slate and steel, opulent but slices closed on the finish. The botrytis came early and quickly in 2023. Francis Mayeur in final vintage as consultant, after many years as inhouse winemaking team, Lorenzo Pasquini director. 154g/l residual sugar, 3.85ph, harvest September 14 to October 11. - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

100 Points! Perfect aromas carry through to every milliliter of this wine, showing intense orange peel, honey, butterscotch, saffron, smoke and peat, with hints of coffee and dried apples. Full-bodied but weightless and silky, with an excellent balance of fruit, sweetness and spices. Some peanut brittle, dried oranges and lemons at the end. I can’t get over how wonderful this is now, but it can age forever. 154 g/L residual sugar. Drink or hold. - James Suckling

90 Points! Bright, soft and fruity with plum and currant character, with full to medium body and a chewy finish. Muscular. Better in 2016. - James Suckling

100 Points, Wine Spectator's #1 Wine of the Year 1993! This is one of my favorite wines ever. Full-bodied, with layers of silky fruit and masses of currant, mineral and berry character. Amazing. It's a wine with perfect structure, perfect strength. It's 1961 Latour in modern clothes. It's hard not to drink it now. '89/'90 Bordeaux non-blind horizontal. - Wine Spectator, 2005

100 Points! The aromas of flowers such as roses, violets and lilacs jump from the glass then turn to dark berries such as blueberries and blackberries. It's full-bodied, with velvety tannins and dense and intense with a chocolate, berry and currant character. This is juicy and rich with wood still showing a bit, but it's all coming together wonderfully. Muscular yet toned. Another perfect wine like the 2010. Try in 2022. - James Suckling

100 Points! One of the perfect wines of the vintage, Frederic Engerer challenged me when I tasted the 2010 Latour at the estate, asking, “If you rate the 2009 one hundred, then how can this not be higher?” Well, the scoring system stops at 100, (and has for 34 years,) and will continue for as long as I continue to write about wine. Nevertheless, this blend of 90.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 9.5% Merlot, and .5% Petit Verdot hit 14.4% natural alcohol and represents a tiny 36% of their entire production. The pH is about 3.6, which is normal compared to the 3.8 pH of the 2009, that wine being slightly lower in alcohol, hence the combination that makes it more flamboyant and accessible. The 2010 is a liquid skyscraper in the mouth, building layers upon layers of extravagant, if not over-the-top richness with its hints of subtle charcoal, truffle, blackberry, cassis, espresso and notes of toast and graphite. Full-bodied, with wonderfully sweet tannin, it is a mind-boggling, prodigious achievement that should hit its prime in about 15 years, and last for 50 to 100. - Robert M. Parker, Jr.

100 Points! The 2010 Latour can be summed up in two words: "The King." It convincingly asserts its superiority over other 2010s, including First Growths, in terms of its aromatic complexity, precision, balance, intensity, complexity and persistence. Simply a faultless Latour that ranks amoung its greatest achievements. - Neal Martin, Vinous Media

ETA: Early Winter 2026

Jeb Dunnuck, 100 Points Deep purple in color, offering a powerful and complex array of pure Pauillac cassis-like fruit, lead pencil, graphite, chalky minerality, truffle, and espresso. Medium to full-bodied, with ripe, sweet tannins, classic Latour regalness, concentration, structure, and class, with just a hint of its normal youthful austerity. This flawless, balanced, structured, insanely good Latour will be drinkable in just 7 to 8 years but evolve for 40 to 50 years in cold cellars.

Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Independent, 100 Points Deep garnet-purple in color, coming barreling out of the glass with powerful notes of blackcurrant jelly, blackberry pie, and plum preserves, followed by suggestions of pencil shavings, cast-iron pan, and charcoal. The medium to full-bodied palate is exquisitely constructed with a myriad of very fine layers, supported by ripe, grainy tannins and beautiful tension, finishing epically long and mineral-laced. Still very tightly wound and will require at least 5 to 7 more years in cellar, then should age gracefully for 50-years+. Drink 2027-2077.

Georgina Hindle, Decanter, 100 Points Dark blackcurrants with smoky tobacco, liquorice and slate. Cool straight away, fresh but so perfectly mouthfilling. Blue fruit, black cherry, fleshy like fruit skin texture. This is how a great Pauillac can taste: serious, deep, classic Cabernet markers, lots of minerality in the flint and stony aspects, strong tannins and a powerful, muscular structure with minty sides. An amazing Pauillac. This will last forever.